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It’s not too early to think about summer giardini. The University of Rhode Island is offering interested gardeners a chance to learn from the tradition of Italian-American gardeners. On Thursday, Jan. 18, at 7 p.m., the public is invited to experience the beauty and charm of traditional Italian-American backyard vegetable gardens and learn about th...

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The Italian Garden Project Foundation is pleased to announce that we are the recipients of a grant from the Francesco and Mary Giambelli Foundation for our Legacy Fig Tree Collection! The fig is a revered fruit to Italian Americans. It adapts and thrives in a land not its own, much like the immigrants themselves. Growing a fig tree when they arrive...

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Farm-to-table might seem like a novel concept to many, but for Italian immigrants, it was simply a way of life. When coming to the New World, along with their culinary skills and traditional recipes, they brought their extensive gardening knowledge as many lived in rural areas and sustained themselves as farmers. Italian immigrants gardening tradit...

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I can barely catch my breath. Keeping up with the Italian American gardener is always a challenge, but never more so than at this time of year. Just when the gardening season is winding down for most of us and the tomatoes have been canned and stored, my gardening friends are still planting, harvesting, and preserving. Their gardens are as green an...

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As a child, Mary Menniti spent a lot of time with her Italian grandfather, who visited their rural home to tend his figs. “He came from a lifestyle of surviving on what he could grow and brought that knowledge to New Castle,” she says. Even then, she could tell there was a special connection between her grandfather and those figs. They grew easily...

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Mary, Mary… How does your garden grow? If you’re an Italian American, Mary Menniti is the person to answer this question—and many more—in this week’s episode of the Italian American Podcast. We’re sitting down with Italian America’s Number 1 Green Thumb to discuss her groundbreaking Italian Garden Project. Mary will share her appreciation for the c...

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The Italians who arrived in America during the period of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, and then also those who came after the Second World War, had some very precise characteristics. They were poor. They were used to a lot of work. They were able to do extraordinary things with their hands. They were willing to live off what they...

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